Do over___
When they thought it was over,
When many claimed it was the end,
Please, do start again.
When things fall apart,
Don't let worries busy your mind; instead, rest
and shoot from the heart.
Take deep breaths and look within,
Find the courage to start again.
Start again with the tools you possess,
Gather them, polish them, and build again, no less.
Don't turn away from the ugliness of the raze
Do look, but don't you dare hold a gaze.
Don't be afraid to start again...
And if you were not, become your best friend
And don't sit too long after the seeming disaster,
Just know that now, your strength and knowledge are vaster.
So, don't be afraid to do it over again.
With your tools, begin again.
To hell and back
and again
So much vitriol and betrayal
from perilous men
Vilified, ambushed, and
left for dead,
But little did they know you
wouldn't stay down but get up instead
RISE!
From lowly ashes to
burnished armor
Up from the wreckage___
stronger, wiser, the victor
Battle-worn now, up from the raze
Not defeated; again, you rise and amaze
100 times I have watched the flower burn
That bright flower that watches with hope
Before the cruel sky sends It's hateful lightening to raze it's roots.
Still my garden of hope regrows until again the lightening strikes.
Will all that's left soon be a garden of ashes and tears?
Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder Poetry Contest //Sponsored by: Crystol Woods
Contest Judged: 8/14/2025 5:19:00 AM
( 1st Place )
Written: August 07, 2025
They say stillness is absence, an empty space between worth noting,
but I have heard its melodies in the pre-dawn chapel where stillness reigned
and still the walls exhaled calm.
I have found stillness and not loneliness---
but in two hands clutching without speaking,
the heart knowing inside out
language would only raze.
Silence is like sunlight before it shines,
the tranquility after I sleep and
the reluctance before "I forgive you",
It grips what chaos cannot express--admiration, agony, dread.
Even when grieving and when at a loss for words,
calmness is at hand and says it all.
So let the world fill with echoes.
With clamor and vivid proclamations.
I will still turn up beauty.
In the lull between storms,
In the hush between instinct and doubt
In the sacred calmness, that hark,
Not to respond, but to understand.
Dun days? Clouds above in greys?
Sapphire? Purple haze?
Deterrence, dessicate, cays.
Buildings on the raze.
World around in twilight.
Months ahead a-grim.
Heart within me, burn with fight!
Crater, have thy rim...
Ocean, boil. Intestines, roil.
Ignite, O my soil.
Lightning, fry. My music, broil.
Serpents, time to coil.
Torment, grip each human life.
Quest, on edge of knife.
Fate and Fortune, seethe with strife.
Demon-sultan, fife.
Tyrant of tomorrow?
Of him I never heard.
Surcease sorrow, I borrow!
Tower dark, thy third.
Wind, tear down. Abhor, my crown.
Demolish the town!
Carnival chaos, thy clown.
Hope, see self as flown.
Flickering flame, explode. Death, come.
Doom, hover o'er all.
Chord suffering, play for some.
Family, how ye gall.
Terror, strike. O Panic, lurch.
Bake and flay, O life.
Silver were the trees of birch!
Wisdom, thou art rife!
I create and raze
Spectacularly repeat
Then magic is born
Stepping into one hundred degrees of morning haze
Wanting the sun to burn it all down in a fiery raze
'Til all the corn stalks are set to a glowing blaze
Then, rains can come across the plains; turning it to a syrupy glaze
Oh, how I loved these humidity infused summer days
They take me back to youth waking early; to enjoy my plays
I missed the first half of my life; when time seemed to have these endless ways
For adulting means its time to teach my littles how to navigate the craze
Also, to savor the moments 'til their fate reaches this phase
Who knew parenting was just guiding mice through the stands of maize?
Bitter Reality
We say this modern world is a boon,
Filled with butterflies and heavenly blooms,
A Golden Era, A civilized place,
Where there are no disguised, equivocal faces,
But these are just sayings of the society,
A mask over the bitter reality,
This world is not what it seems,
It isn’t always filled with fruitful dreams,
It hosts a cavern of blood and war,
Terrible conspiracies spread wide and far,
The victories lead to another’s ruin,
You have no idea where the trouble is brewing,
The streets are like nightmares at night,
Murderers and rapists walk freely in the light,
Peace and justice hidden under greed, corruption,
All the science used for destruction,
We’re on the path to raze our Earth,
If we do not change, it’ll lead to more hurt,
When someone tries to break this unseen cruelty,
More monsters appear, supporting this bitter reality.
- Indrani A. Deo
Burning in black flames of eternal woes,
my heart yearns to find answers it's needing.
Skin begins to wilt like a winter rose,
bruised from deep wounds of internal bleeding.
Haunted by sad soul's whimpering mourning,
shards of hope crack like dire demolitions.
Stumbling and crumbling without a warning.
An endless demotion of emotions.
Hail of tears plunder on marble tombstones.
I question the deceased for explanations,
but beneath the earth they have become bones.
I turn to the skies to express frustrations.
Taking back my pain, so pardon my pleas,
as I raze the roots of my ancestry.
burn me down
like Babylon
consume my flesh with fire
unquenchable
Desire
Raze me to the ground
scatter every brick
To the four winds
bury me
like Osiris
divided
divine sectioning
seconding
Sacralizing
phallicizing
Pour your living waters
down my throat
into my belly
and up from beneath
holify me
gushing, rushing
Living Water
sacral phallic water
energize me
Wholify me
receive me
willingly, this sacrifice
please me
please me
pacify me
resurrect me
Holify me
living waters never quench
Holy fire
Lavafy me
Molten living metals
running through every channel
veins, arteries, capillaries, nadis
Open me
i, the channel, emptied
eradicate me
Split me up the middle
reverse my topology
Outside like the Inside
precisely as the Inside
I receive you
Open me, Penetrate me
lava flowing up Inside me
like the infinite Outside
show me
the unbounded Abyss within
mirror still
Lake Placid
reflecting
Perfectly
not a ripple
but still vibrating
Energy
forever on fire
Lake Salome
the gushing wet birth
of the twenty-four-sided Jerusalem
forever on fire
The land was desolate and parched
Only sinuos marks of rivers which ran
No water found by men who searched
Rivers were squandered away by man
Sky ran obscured asunder and ablaze
Sly man would plunder and raze
Taps were left running all day
Too late to be leery of the loss at hand
A loss which man thought was at bay
Sadly Gone were the days of a beautiful land
Gone were the daisys swaying in lukewarm zephyrs
Gone were the meadows of glistening green grass
Gone were the branching boughs of titanic trees
Gone were the beauties of nature
Gone due to man
Gone due to his pride
Gone due to his ignorance
Gone due to his thirst
Blasting through the night
Blaze to morn
"Hey there Thunderhead!
Where you going with that storm?"
"To crazy eights!
And jesters wild
I’ll just be gone a while
Or more"
A frenzy in her mind
Fixed rage to rhyme
Don’t waste my time!
She says for hours
Words twirl through
The curly wire
There was wreck down deep inside
Beyond the bounds of mercy
Well lay down Sandy. Lay down
'Cause more people love you than baby birds
You’re a lucky mess I’ll tell you
Are you an angel or a bomb?
You made a liar out of me
You proved me wrong
Now a year has passed and gone
Tell me will you slow down and fall?
You’re gonna raze my faith
And I don’t wanna mind
I wish I didn’t mind at all
Wearing thick garments against summer blaze
we huddle with joy* to smite freezing raze
amidst absence of snow
since such fact we all know
while virtually shut inside igloo's glaze.
Romans 15:13 - "Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost."
August 3, 2023
4th place, "A Bawdy or Funny Limerick" Poetry Writing Contest
Sponsored by Tania Kitchin; judged on 8/17/2023
Thunder god
Oh, thunder god might be the harbinger of an eddy,
He is a potent striker and a deity,
Yet his mind bores him with the power which is at the ready,
You may think he has a lot of power,
Though his dejection is that by a sneeze he may raze a tower,
He just wants to watch and smell a flower,
He is considered a monster and blight,
Sailors are scared of his thunder’s sight,
Little do they know he wants a buddy who can hold him tight,
He may be very potent and active,
I am afraid we are wrong as we see a different perspective,
He cries and causes storms because our views are radioactive,
He is humane and full of clemency,
Oh, brothers but his surly nature is the only thing we can see!
when Red walks into a room
she stirs the crowd.
her dynamic energy turns
heads and eyes follow.
her confident gait
possesses a radiance
arousing sensuous
lustful desire.
RED: strong ~
relentless in her pursuits
carries the courage
of a lioness
roaring, wielding
resonant power.
she is passionate ~
devoted in love and friendship
fiery in anger,
resolute without regret
she will raze you up
in flames
leaving you
smoldering in ashes.
RED
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